


Before I Sleep

by stillskies



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Community: kh_drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillskies/pseuds/stillskies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, the darkness is worse than death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before I Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Won challenge 286: Anticipation.

He doesn't think; he just reacts. It's something that has gotten him far in life, something that has made him who he is. He doesn't hesitate, doesn't take a moment. He runs on instinct, and instinct is telling him to _run_ , run run run far away before they take him. He has to stay alive, protect _it_ because it is _his_ and he earned it through blood and tears and sweat. 

He can see disapproving scowls, hear voices filled with derision. They float through his mind as he runs, always _just_ ahead, never behind him. If he can outrun the faces and the laughter, then he'll be okay. He'll wake up and he'll remember and it will be the way it was before the darkness and the sadness and the loss. He'll open his eyes and see their faces smiling back at him and the sun will be in the sky; the darkness that envelops him will be gone, banished. 

He presses forward, pushes himself until the ache in his legs is distant and half-remembered like everything else. 

_It's better to forget,_ whispers the dark, _what use is the light? They have forgotten you, and you have forgotten them._

No. No no no no no no.

He runs faster, harder. The faces twist and bend and swirl, until he sees smoke trailing lazily in the air and the slant of green, green eyes. The air around him is heavy and empty and full of promise, and if he can just call it forward, shape it and hold it in his hand, he can break free. 

Away from the darkness.

Away from the light.

Away away away. Back to his play island with his pretend friends and the fruit that represents a connection that cannot be broken. He can taste it, the bittersweet tang of the juice in his mouth, and he thinks he can see a flash of brown hair, a glimpse of a white stone, before it is all gone. Gone, gone, gone.

Like everything else.

Like everyone else.

Like him.

The laughter is back, urging him on. _Lose yourself,_ it says seductively, _you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain._

For a brief moment, mere seconds, he considers, and he falls. The heavy air dissipates and he hits the floor.

And he doesn't open his eyes.


End file.
